Chamber hosts premier and local UCP candidate
By Lethbridge Herald on November 14, 2024.
Premier Danielle Smith, alongside Lethbridge West MLA candidate John Middleton-Hope answer questions from members of the Lethbridge Chamber of Commerce during an event Wednesday at the Sandman Signature Hotel.
Herald photo by Alejandra Pulido-GuzmanAlejandra Pulido-Guzman – LETHBRIDGE HERALD – apulido@lethbridgeherald.com
The Lethbridge Chamber of Commerce hosted Premier Danielle Smith and Lethbridge West MLA candidate John Middleton-Hope to provide members of the business community with insights on the provincial government’s current priorities and strategies, as well as a platform for campaigning.
“This event offers a very unique platform for the Premier and I to connect with stakeholders and share some of our experiences and discuss the future of Alberta,” said Middleton-Hope during his remarks.
He also mentioned his candidacy for Lethbridge West and said he believes everyone is endowed with certain gifts and his happened to be in public service.
Middleton-Hope added that throughout the past several weeks he had the opportunity to speak with many citizens one-on-one and he has heard loud and clear what his neighbours want.
“They want a safe community where their children can attend schools, social events, sporting events, religious services and family functions without fear,” said Middleton-Hope.
“They want good governance where business are allowed to thrive, where our environment is protected for future generations and fiscal needs are addressed before wants.”
After Middleton Hope spoke, Smith shared some remarks of her own, which started by giving Cyndi Crane, executive director of the Lethbridge Chamber of Commerce a commendation for all her efforts as Smith has seen Crane in multiple events lately, with Team Lethbridge being the most recent one prior to Wednesday’s event.
“I just want to congratulate this community for being so active and being such great advocates and that includes our UCP candidate here for Lethbridge West, John Middleton-Hope. You can be assured that he will be just as such an advocate in the new role that we hope he’s going to play in a few weeks’ time,” said Smith.
But when asked about calling the by-election within that time frame based on her remarks during a media scrum after the event, Smith said it has to be called by Jan. 1 and therefore they still have some time.
“As I’ve mentioned before, I’m actually quite surprised that the leader of the Official Opposition has shown no interest in seeking a seat in the Legislature,” said Smith.
She added she understands Nenshi did not want to run in Lethbridge West, but he has 37 other seats he could run in from within his party.
“It’s normally convention when somebody becomes leader that one of their colleagues steps aside for them so that they can get into the legislature. So, I was genuinely waiting to see if anyone would do that,” said Smith.
She said they have a few more days to be able to make that decision, and if they do, she will call them both at the same time.
During the event those in attendance had the opportunity to ask Smith and Middleton-Hope some questions and one of them was asked by Carmen Mombourquette, Board Chair of the Holy Spirit Catholic School Division about the possibility of modernizing St. Francis Junior High School.
Smith answered the question first by stating that the provincial government quickly realized the previous process was very frustrating for everyone involved and that is why they recently changed it.
She said that due to unprecedented population growth within the last year, the government had to change the process to be able to keep up with the growth for municipalities to be able to accommodate their students as well.
“We’re now going to essentially say yes when the city and school board are in sync on the site. So, if you have worked with the city and we have the site zone properly, we’ve got it serviced and a shovel-ready, ready to go then we want to be able to accelerate your plans,” said Smith.
She said those are the things an MLA can help with and hopefully Middleton-Hope could advocate for it if he gets elected.
“Things that we’re seeing councils do is they’re accelerating the zoning changes that are accelerating their plans to get site service and as soon as they do that, we’re there to accelerate the advancement through the different stages on the construction. I put it to you, the answer is yes,” said Smith.
Middleton-Hope added that he has talked to both school divisions and realized the need for a professional grant writer to be able to put together a joint submission to the provincial government, which will likely gain greater traction, as the Lethbridge School Division is also looking into replacing Lethbridge Collegiate Institute as it is a 100 years old.
“I contacted our administration of the city and I’ve asked them to work with the school boards so that we can make sure they have the grant writing capabilities. I believe it’s just something that they haven’t had to attend to and as you may know, grant writers are hard to find,” said Middleton-Hope.
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Thank you Lethbridge Chamber of Commerce for hosting our Premier along with Mr John Middleton-Hope.
It is clear from this report and first hand information, that Premier Smith and Middleton-Hope have a very good handle on the status of issues here in the Lethbridge community.
They were/are both sincere in working to resolve health and saftey concerns while raising other initiatives to bolster our community.
To hear Middleton-Hope refer to constituents of Lethbridge West as “his neighbours” this is representative of the person he is. He is very open, empathetic and yes, an “actual neighbour” as he does and has for a long time, reside in the West Lethbridge Riding. Unlike the NDP candidate, Rob Miyashiro who doesn’t even reside in the Riding, rather deep in Lethbridge East (where, by the way he challenged the MLA position and lost, most recently).
John Middleton-Hope is definitely prepared, and equipped to serve Lethbridge West constituents, and Premier Smith is absolutely in tune with him.
NOW, if only NDP leader Nenshi would get on with seeking a seat in the Legislature, we could proceed to our Byelection in Wesr Lethbridge to fill the vacancy instigated by failed NDP MLA, Shannon Phillips!